Disney Closes LucasArts Game Publishing Division

It’s A Sad Day For Video Games

Disney has today shut down the video game publishing arm of LucasArts.

A LucasArts representative confirmed the news in a statement to Game Informer, which said:

“After evaluating our position in the games market, we’ve decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company’s risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games. As a result of this change, we’ve had layoffs across the organization. We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles.”

Kotaku reports that staff were informed of the closure yesterday morning, and around 150 people were laid off.

It also claims, citing ‘a reliable source’, that both of the studio’s projects have also apparently been cancelled outright – Star Wars 1313 and Star Wars: First Assault.

But a LucasFilm rep has suggested that LucasArt’s projects may yet be rescued via a licensing deal with an external developer. “It is worth noting that we are looking for proven external partners who can help us provide video games to our fans,” they told Game Informer.

“We still believe in the video game industry, we still will provide Star Wars games, we’re just looking at different models rather than internal production… They’re evaluating everything. There’s always a possibility that it [Star Wars 1313] can still come out via licensing.”

This comes just five months after Disney’s $4 billion acquisition of George Lucas’s Lucasfilm last year.

Doubts were cast over the future of Star Wars 1313 when Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that Lucasfilm will focus on mobile and tablet games as opposed to console projects.

The title was recently rumoured to have been put on hold, despite assurances that the acquisition wouldn’t have an immediate direct impact on the game’s development.

About The Author

Joe Martin is the News Contributor at Awesome Games. A multi-media journalist working in the national press by day and avid gamer by night, Joe has spent the last few years sounding off about gaming and the games industry to anyone who'll listen.